Finally got my timing belt sorted.

"Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell." (oppisitelock)
09/11/2015 at 06:18 • Filed to: None

The damage: £425... Ouch.

DISCUSSION (8)

Cé hé sin > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
09/11/2015 at 06:30

That’s big money for a belt.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Cé hé sin
09/11/2015 at 06:34

It is but it was the lowest price I got. Most trusted independent garages in the area refused to do the job and the one that did agree and quote me a little less used the words “I’ll give it a go.” Not what you want to hear regarding your pride and joy...

I ended up haggling the main dealer down from £500. They seemed offended that someone would haggle on servicing prices.

Cé hé sin > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
09/11/2015 at 06:41

Must be a tricky job. My FTO is on its third belt and despite being a V6 with a long and difficult to access belt it didn’t cost that much as I recall.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Cé hé sin
09/11/2015 at 06:49

I did have the water pump done at the same time so that added to it a little but yeah seems to be difficult. The mechanic we prefer in town took one look and said “ah Renault, we don’t have the tooling for that.” So there must be specific tools involved, he refused to do the job on our Laguna too. I assume Renault make it purposely awkward to send you to the dealer.

AndyG_UK > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
09/11/2015 at 07:56

Good god that’s pricey, I paid £280 quid for mine to be done, along with the water pump and a coolant flush and change on my Abarth 500, all genuine Fiat parts, done at a local Bosch Service Centre, who I use for all of the servicing on the car now (the Citroen DS4 still goes to the main dealer cos they are well priced and the service from them is great,best from any main dealer I have ever dealt with and we didn’t even buy the car from them!), I find the Bosch Service Centre’s always great value for money and service if you can find one.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > AndyG_UK
09/11/2015 at 08:00

The service was good and quick but yeah the price is pretty crazy. We have a Bosch service centre nearby but their quote was about the same as the dealer so I thought it may as well go there. Looking on eurocarparts the parts for Renaults just seem to be higher than most, plus the job is a bit of a ball ache.

AndyG_UK > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
09/11/2015 at 08:04

You would think that with it being a small (and no offence) basic car that it would be cheap, I was actually pleasantly surprised when mine was done because the Abarth has a very tight engine bay, they had to take the from bumper off to get at everything. Maybe it’s just cheaper to get stuff done up north! At least it’s done now so you don’t have to worry about it, which in my view is always worth paying out for!

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > AndyG_UK
09/11/2015 at 08:58

I think they only take the wheel and inner wing off to access mine. It is very tight and the engine has to be unbolted and lifted off it's mounts though. I thought it'd be cheaper too to be honest but while it's super simple, access is very tight.